


Real Face

by thesecretdoor



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: Gen, Heavy Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-18 19:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10623129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesecretdoor/pseuds/thesecretdoor
Summary: KAT-TUN 10th Anniversary fic.





	

“Happy 10th anniversary.” Kame says aloud, walking across the stage of the International Forum. He had plans tonight - big plans - taking TV producers out to dinner and discussing forthcoming opportunities kind of plans, but for some reason his feet brought him here. This wasn't where it started. KAT-TUN started long before this place, in a thousand places other than here, but this is where his feet brought him.

It wasn't even where they debuted, and that's really what this is all about anyway, but he’s not the only one who somehow feels like this is the right place.

Koki is sitting in the front row of the empty seats, Kame hadn’t noticed him until he’d stood up, he doesn’t speak though, just silently makes his way up to the stage. Part of Kame is still angry, and that part of him wants to say that Koki doesn’t belong up here anymore, but this is about so much more than hurt feelings. This is about KAT-TUN and that second T will always be Koki’s.

The first T walks out on stage the same instant Koki reaches it and from the other side Ueda appears. They’re all still looking in something of amazement at each other, when movement behind them makes them turn to see Maru just a few steps behind Ueda.

Without any kind of verbal agreement they make their way to the front of the stage, lining up in letter order. Kame automatically leaves a space between him and Taguchi, but as he moves to close it there’s movement just at the edge of the stagelights’ reach, and then Jin emerges, making his way to the stage to claim his space.

It's tense, and awkward, and part of Kame wishes he'd never even walked across the stage, he wishes he'd stayed in the shadows as the rest of them surely would have done. But Kame isn't the type to let the moment pass him by and he smiles, something bittersweet, as everything clicks into place. “Giri giri de itsumo ikitte itai kara...” he sings, barely above a whisper.

“Sa~” a voice answers him, and when Kame looks over at Jin he just nods.

“Omoi...” Kame starts tentatively.

“Omoi...” Jin answers him.

“Kiri buchi yaburo...”

Their voices merge together in the next line, and it's sounds just as beautiful as it always did, it feels real. “Riaru wo te ni irerun da...”

Silence follows, and for Kame the mirage is just about to shatter when a sound interrupts it, the scratching sound of Nakamaru's beatbox.

Kame smiles despite himself when Koki's rap breaks out, because in all the years that have passed, none of them have ever been able to keep up with him, not when he was there to teach them and certainly not after...

Jin's timing is perfect, even without a backing track, as he breaks into the first verse and Kame takes a deep breath as he prepares for his own lines.

Their hand movements are slightly out of time, and the song doesn’t flow quite as smoothly as the last time the six of them sang it together, but it’s as smooth as the first time they sang it live like this and Kame likes it better that way. Some people say he’s a perfectionist, but KAT-TUN have never been perfect, they wouldn’t be KAT-TUN if they were and maybe that’s the only reason he can keep on going with them.

When the song finishes a comfortable satisfaction falls over them. It’s short, but somehow eternal too, and Kame feels like it could be 2006 or 2026 and this would always be what KAT-TUN is for him. And then it passes.

It’s Jin that walks off first and it’s kind of fitting Kame thinks as he watches Jin make his way past the audience seats. Maru shakes his head softly with a sigh and turns to leave too, heading backstage, and Kame hears the clunk of his boots down the metal steps. Ueda follows after him, not even looking around, but Taguchi does, he looks first at Kame and then at Koki who is wandering to the front of the stage, then out to the absent crowd. Taguchi gives a brief salute, to who, Kame isn’t sure, and then he turns and follows after his ex-bandmates.

It feels emptier after that, colder and yet something is tugging at his insides as he turns and walks off the stage himself.

Kame waits in the wings as he has done what feels like a thousand times before, even if it's not that many, because the tradition didn't even start all that long ago. It feels like a thousand times though as Kame leans back against the support beam of the staircase, just in earshot.

“Will you always be a hyphen?” Koki asks the empty auditorium, and Kame recognises the sound of tears in his voice as he continues. “Then we'll always be KAT-TUN”.


End file.
